WINGS

Ben wants to fly. He not only believes he should have been born with wings, but he despises any mechanical alternative and impatiently struggles to find his feathery appendages. Ian, his ground-dweller brother, alternates with Ben in telling this story of a family and child at odds. As far as his parents and brother are concerned, Ben needs to be saved from himself, but for Ben the whole world is judged by how it accepts his own sure knowledge of himself. The novel works as a metaphor for understanding identity, but even better, it also works as a suspenseful tale on its own. Starting as far back as Ben can remember and working through adolescence, reality and possibility battle with Ben’s nature. The writing is clean and crisp, the chapters short. A sense of foreboding and danger builds throughout as Gonzalez gradually reveals the intensity of the conflict. Soul aerodynamics on display. (Fiction. YA)